Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Google Map/Earth: Powerful tools (for terrorists?)

Just 2 days back, when terrorist attacked PNS Mehran in Karachi, Pakistan, I heard question like below from almost all quarters:

How terrorist plan attack with such detail? who gave them the detailed information, like, where the assets are? what kind of assets they are? how much close or far they are from the outer perimeter? what the surrounding environment is like? so on and so forth.

Have a look at these pictures and the link to Google Map of PNS Mehran, Karachi, Pakistan. See the amount of detail it offers to its viewer.

Google Earth accused of aiding terrorists - An Indian Court has been called to ban Google Earth amid suggestions the online satellite imaging was used to help plan the terror attacks that killed more than 170 people in Mumbai last month – The Sunday Times

Google Earth High Resolution Images a Threat to China – China wants the United States Government to take action to get Google to reduce the resolution of the Google Earth images of China's military, nuclear, space, energy and other sensitive government agency installations – Wikileaks

How to mitigate that threat?

If this is the case, then how we can mitigate that threat? is this possible to block details of sensitive installations? is there any precedent where Google agree to hide details?

NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen : This is the site of the main operating of NATO's Airborne Early Warning Control Force's E-3A Component, which provides an early-warning radar system to enhance NATO's air- defense capabilities. The base includes 17 E-3A aircraft used for air surveillance and air-operations-communications support. Crews from 14 nations, including Spain, Turkey and the U.S., power the aircraft

Ramstein Air Base in Germany: Ramstein Air Base figures prominently in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. It's the home of the 86th Airlift Wing and headquarters of U.S. Air Forces in Europe. It is also a NATO installation. Americans, Canadians, Germans, British, French and other nationalities comprise the base's population